{"id":140006,"date":"2024-01-17T09:33:29","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T09:33:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/01\/17\/chelsea-legend-admits-he-regrets-joining-liverpool\/"},"modified":"2024-01-17T09:33:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T09:33:29","slug":"chelsea-legend-admits-he-regrets-joining-liverpool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/01\/17\/chelsea-legend-admits-he-regrets-joining-liverpool\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea legend admits he regrets joining Liverpool \u2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Joe Cole has revealed that he regrets joining Liverpool from Chelsea in 2010, admitting a move to Tottenham Hotspur might have made more sense at the time. In hindsight, the former England star most wishes he\u2019d actually taken his career abroad to sunnier climes instead.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cole had been one of the key players in Jose Mourinho\u2019s Chelsea side that won back-to-back Premier League titles in 2005 and 2006, as well as emerging as a starter for England. But he missed a significant chunk of 2008\/09 with a long-term knee injury, as well as the start of 2009\/10, which he has now explained led to the end of his time at Chelsea as contract negotiations stalled.<\/p>\n

Unable to fully recover, he never returned to his former level and \u2013 a decent loan spell at Lille aside \u2013 spells at West Ham United and Aston Villa failed to kickstart things.<\/p>\n

Cole\u2019s last game in England was for Coventry City in League One, aged 34 in 2016, before joining Florida-based Tampa Bay Rowdies of the NASL \u2013 generally thought of as America\u2019s second tier at the time \u2013 and experiencing an improvement in his injured knee due to the warm climate made him believe he should have pursued a move to La Liga or a southern Serie A club instead of choosing Liverpool.<\/p>\n

\u201cI done my knee [in January 2009] and that was probably the start of the end of my career because I was never the same player after that. I done everything, ACL, PCL, MCL, and I was out for 11 months,\u201d Cole explained on the latest episode of John Obi Mikel\u2019s\u00a0The Obi One Podcast<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Contract talks with Chelsea had been underway before the injury and he admitted he could see why the club \u201cpulled back from negotiations\u2026Chelsea were right, from a business perspective\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Joe Cole played a big role in Chelsea\u2019s 2000s success \/ Ben Radford\/GettyImages<\/p>\n

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Early in 2010, Cole\u2019s chance to get some more game time, by now playing under new boss Carlo Ancelotti, came when several players departing for the Africa Cup of Nations. He did enough to command a regular place in the team and\u00a0Chelsea\u00a0put a new contract offer on the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played every game, six, seven or eight games in a row, played really well and then they started, \u2018We can offer you this new contract.\u2019 It wasn\u2019t at what it was before,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy ego got involved a little bit and football was more of a struggle. I would play, knee would blow up. I couldn\u2019t do certain things that I used to be able to do. I needed an ice pack, I was in a lot of pain\u2026 it\u2019s very rare you get back to where you were.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cole went on to play and score in a title deciding-win against Manchester United at Old Trafford, but a back injury meant he was then unable to train for a few days, admitting he \u201creally wrecked myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIt got to the end of the season\u2026my body was just failing me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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One of Cole\u2019s last Chelsea games was at Old Trafford \/ Alex Livesey\/GettyImages<\/p>\n

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By this time, Chelsea had already stopped further negotiations and Cole, who had been unable to permanently displace Florent Malouda or Salomon Kalou wound up making a major career decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething subconsciously clicked and I thought to myself, \u2018I\u2019m never going to get [back] to the player I was. I\u2019ve got to leave.\u2019 Because I don\u2019t want to finish my Chelsea career, just sitting there on the injury table,\u201d the now 42-year-old said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a choice between Liverpool or Spurs because Arsenal pulled out and I just couldn\u2019t go to Spurs. I just couldn\u2019t go. It would have made sense, Harry Redknapp was the manager, they had a good team, I lived in London, half my pals are Spurs fans. I just couldn\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughter was just born and\u00a0Liverpool\u00a0is a great club. It didn\u2019t work for me there but it is a fantastic club, an institution globally. But if I could have my time again, I would probably [say] no and I\u2019d have gone abroad, somewhere hot, because playing in the heat actually helped my knee. After that I went to Liverpool, West Ham and Villa. I had a good season in France [at Lille], but with my knee, I was just managing my injuries. Managing to still play, play well sometimes but never really consistently like I had been. I never played for England again after 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen when I went to America [with Tampa Bay Rowdies], it was like a miracle. Living in the sun, my knee was like 60-70%. It\u2019s still not right now but I could still play. It was like a miracle. If I could have hindsight, I would have gone abroad somewhere hot, maybe Spain or southern Italy somewhere, and I think I could have played at the top level for a little bit longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joe Cole has revealed that he regrets joining Liverpool from Chelsea in 2010, admitting a move to Tottenham Hotspur might have made more sense at the time. In hindsight, the former England star most wishes he\u2019d actually taken his career abroad to sunnier climes instead. Cole had been one of the key players in Jose […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":140007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nChelsea legend admits he regrets joining Liverpool \u2013 - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/01\/17\/chelsea-legend-admits-he-regrets-joining-liverpool\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chelsea legend admits he regrets joining Liverpool \u2013 - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Joe Cole has revealed that he regrets joining Liverpool from Chelsea in 2010, admitting a move to Tottenham Hotspur might have made more sense at the time. 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